Innovation ignited: How security leaders enable innovation with Identity
Chief information officers, directors, and other security leaders must walk a fine line between protecting data and ensuring authorized users have seamless access to tools and services. Their Identity and authentication strategies are responsible for proactively mitigating and remediating threats in a way that protects users’ trust. However, security leaders must also work with development, technology, and product teams so that Identity and authentication strategies improve — rather than hinder — user experience and innovation. By optimizing digital Identity management, including authentication, security leaders can build resilient organizations and deliver differentiating digital experiences that drive a competitive advantage.
Why organizations are shifting to Identity-first security approaches
Traditionally, organizations prioritized investments in network-based security solutions to protect data. As a result, individual teams often implemented their own siloed Identity repositories to meet their unique requirements. However, this approach has resulted in Identity sprawl and inconsistent policies that create even more risk. It's no wonder that in 2024, identities ranked as the No. 1 attack vector.
Siloed identities and authentication solutions generate complexity that hinders visibility, consistent and proactive threat mitigation policies, and regulatory compliance. Disparate strategies make it harder for IT teams to manage expanding threat surfaces. Increasing numbers of identities and mobile workers create more points of risk but so does the expanding usage of technologies, including cloud services and AI, that depend on access to sensitive data.
By centralizing the management of identities, organizations can quickly apply and enforce consistent policies that establish a stronger security posture for better protecting systems and user data from attacks. This explains why a 2024 Gartner study found that organizations are taking an Identity-first approach to security rather than focusing on traditional controls such as network security to improve cybersecurity outcomes. According to Gartner, when organizations strengthen and leverage their Identity fabric to advance holistic security policies, they can reduce errors that cause 28% of breaches. They can also improve threat-detection and response capabilities, especially from sophisticated phishing attacks.
Increasing protections and fueling innovation with Identity-powered security
A unified Identity and Access Management (IAM) strategy delivers shared, easy-to-use tools for Identity and authentication that make it easier to mitigate threats without creating user friction in onboarding and system access. It also enforces consistent yet flexible policies across organizations' on-premises systems and cloud-based services. As a result, security, technology, development, and product teams can spend less time manually evaluating who has access to what, and how, and instead focus on making better use of data to build differentiating solutions, from AI-driven automation to self-service business intelligence.
How Xactly reduces Identity sprawl and speeds remediation
Xactly operates an Intelligent Revenue Platform that companies use to improve sales planning, incentives, and pipeline management and forecasting. Rapid growth prompted Xactly to engage Okta for a unified IAM solution so they could reduce Identity sprawl, streamline compliance, and fortify their security posture.
With Okta, Xactly gained a unified view of all their platform users, applications, and access privileges by consolidating their Identity security approaches across their systems and applications. They automated tasks including deprovisioning and access reviews for SOC 2 compliance. And Xactly employed Okta’s advanced analytics and risk-scoring capabilities to prioritize security incidents and accelerate response times.
With their unified IAM solution, Xactly’s security teams improved their ability to identify and manage potential vulnerabilities such as over-privileged accounts and unused access. As a result, they’ve implemented stricter access controls and reduced risks from sources including Identity sprawl and multi-factor authentication (MFA) bypass. To date, the company has resolved more than 200 critical security issues and reduced deprovisioning errors by more than 83% with Okta.
How HubSpot deflects phishing attacks and maintains a unified view of security
Marketing software provider HubSpot initially adopted a unified digital Identity solution from Okta when they were a hyper-growth startup to improve security, onboarding, and scaling out. The flexibility of the Okta Identity and authentication solution enabled HubSpot to adjust their security strategies and adopt MFA to protect against evolving threats including an uptick in social engineering and phishing attacks.
The unified solution has enabled greater insights into access requests, giving security teams the information and controls they need to implement consistent strategies. They also use these insights and built-in centralized controls to further mitigate threats by implementing the right front-end authentication choices for every request based on the application, device, and user.
By leveraging Okta, HubSpot was also able to automate 80% of provisioning requests. They were also able to improve security and peace of mind by automating deprovisioning processes. As a result, IT leaders allocate fewer resources to managing identities and authentication, freeing up teams to advance other initiatives including a Zero Trust policy that will enable passwordless services for HubSpot's employees and customers.
How Cinépolis prevents fraud and boosts customer trust
Cinépolis operates one of the largest movie theater chains in the world. One way the organization drives growth and retention is through Club Cinépolis, their customer loyalty program. However, loyalty programs are attractive targets for bad actors. To ensure they protected customers' data and prevented bad actors from creating fake accounts or using someone else's rewards, Cinépolis implemented an IAM solution from Okta.
Security teams now use continuous monitoring and other out-of-the-box capabilities in Okta to defend against brute-force attacks and suspicious IP throttling to prevent account takeovers. These measures decreased fake accounts and fraudulent activity by 16% and Cinépolis was also able to use their digital Identity solution to simplify user enrollment, increase customer insights, and improve marketers' decision-making. As a result, in just three months, the organization improved enrollment by 300%, adding 1.3 million new members. At the same time, by aligning marketing strategies with customer insights made possible through their digital Identity solution, Cinépolis decreased advertising spend by 35%.
Ignite innovation at your organization
Designing, deploying, and managing a secure technology stack that can meet rapidly evolving user, authentication, and innovation requirements is best achieved using a unified Identity strategy. Okta equips organizations with an intelligent, integrated digital Identity platform that makes it easier to stay ahead of emerging threats and comply with increasing regulations — while also driving growth, differentiation, and impact. That's because, with Okta, your teams can deliver seamless login, onboarding, and collaboration experiences for customers, employees, contractors, and business partners in less time, with less frustration, and in a way that can improve security outcomes.
Start driving innovation today: Learn more about Okta’s Workforce Identity Cloud
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